The Strokes

My personal 'The Strokes' ranking albums :

1- Is This It (2001) => 84.6
2- Room on Fire (2003) => 81.4
3- First Impression of Earth (2005) => 81.1
4- The New Abnormal (2020) => 80
5- Angles (2011) => 78.5
6- Comedown Machine (2013) => 77.3

A lot of very good songs, but if I had to create a 'Best of The Strokes', it would be made of 23 tracks :

- Is This It (2001) => 85
- The Modern Age (2001) => 85
- Barely Legal (2001) => 85
- Someday (2001) => 90
- Last Nite (2001) => 90
- Hard to Explain (2001) => 90
- Trying Your Luck (2001) => 85
- What Ever Happened? (2003) => 85
- Reptilia (2003) => 90
- Automatic Stop (2003) => 85
- 12:51 (2003) => 85
- The End Has No End (2003) => 90
- You Only Live Once (2005) => 90
- Juicebox (2005) => 85
- Heart in a Cage (2005) => 85
- Razorblade (2005) => 85
- Electricityscape (2005) => 85
- Under Cover of Darkness (2011) => 90
- Tap Out (2013) => 85
- One Way Trigger (2013) => 85
- The Adults Are Talking (2020) => 85
- Selfless (2020) => 90
- At The Door (2020) => 90

i dont get it, plain and simple...

From Strangel 04/28/2020 07:57

This album is exactly what you’d hope for at this point in their career. It perfectly combines their essential sound with their ambition. Their essential sound got lost a bit on recent albums in their ambition to challenge themselves. It made for interesting progressions In their sound without being able to nail a classic recording. I think they might have nailed it with this one.

The strokes are one of the best alt rock acts to have emerged in 00s along with Interpol, The National, Arctic monkeys and Arcade fire. Julian Cascablancas, the principal songwriter of the band, has a great sense of vocal melody IMO and that's one of the things that sets them apart from dozens of bands who tried to copy/borrow their sound. Very few artists/bands can claim to have their debut album to be as good and influential as Is this it. I think the album has aged pretty well too. It was followed by Room on fire which has better songwriting IMO and is more polished. I won't say it too different from is this it though. First impressions of earth is quite underrated and has some pretty great tunes and has more melancholic elements going on, which I absolutely dig. Angles was probably the first album that had inputs from everyone in the band and it was around this time tension among the band members started to emerge. That probably has to do with the fact that Julian didn't find the inputs interesting and wanted to have the creative control over the band. It still is a pretty decent album. There are few songs i just can't get into on this record though. Their fifth album Comedown machine, was mostly a contractual obligation and is probably the least liked album among the fans. I don't think even the band likes it. It's pretty different from their conventional sound and sounds like a throwback to 80s music. It has some pretty catchy tunes though. The band took a break after that and band members started their own projects. I think Julian Cascablancas's side project "The Voidz" deserves a mention here. They have released two pretty amazing albums that have more experimental sound and you should definitely check them out if you haven't. Virtue was one of the best records of 2018 IMO. Seven years of hiatus and the band is back with their new album "the new abnormal". Talk about a relevant title. I have to say I wasn't expecting much from the band at this point and I was thinking this is gonna be one of things when band gets together just for the sake of money. I am ecstatic to say I couldn't have been more wrong. The strokes have delivered. The new abnormal is indubitably their most ambitious record and have more diversity than any of their previous records. I feel it's a mixture of convectional Strokes sound and The voidz. It's such a good feeling when one of your favorite bands surprises you with such a good album after all this time. The strokes still got it!

I think they're the epitome of cool in the alt-rock scene of the new millennium. Their garage rock sound is an A+, their 80s new wave sound infused with today's alt-rock is a B+. People don't want to look past Is This It?, but I believe Room On Fire is a more polished album that doesn't drag in the way that Is This It?'s trite sound tends to do. Angles is very much underrated and Comedown Machine is a pretty solid throwback album to 80s alt. First Impressions is messy but they have 7 or so solid tunes on it.

Album Rankings:
1. Room on Fire- 96/100
2. Is This It?- 93/100
3. Angles- 89/100
4. Comedown Machine- 84/100
5. First Impressions of Earth- 72/100

My third favourite artist, behind Queen & The Cure
Is This It - 98/100
Room On Fire 92/100
First Impressions of Earth - 93/100
Angles - 86/100
Comedown Machine - 83/100
Future Present Past EP - 58/100

Great band in their prime (2001-2003). Post Room On Fire career is pretty good too. Not heard their last album tho.
1. Is This It
2. Room On Fire
3. Angles
4. First Impressions Of Earth

They are very similar to Interpol. Masterpiece level debut, decent sophomore album and then a ton of mediocrity.

Pretty good. I like their distorted sound.

From choppychop532 08/10/2016 05:52

These guys will always have a special place in my heart.